Around Maryland

Baltimore City Schools apologized to students, families and staff Thursday afternoon for scheduling parent-teacher conferences on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, begins this year at sundown Oct. 4 and ends at sundown Oct. 5. Observance of the Day of Atonement involves fasting and attending services.

At the request of prosecutors, Baltimore police will assign a detective to reinvestigate the murder of Woodlawn High School student Hae Min Lee, whose killing two decades ago was examined in the hit podcast “Serial” and a popular HBO documentary. A spokeswoman for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said police agreed to reinvestigate Lee’s killing in light of new evidence of alternate suspects. That police will review the case further validates the work of defense attorneys, activists and internet fans who argued over the years that Lee’s imprisoned ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, is innocent.­

Following several altercations at sporting events in the first two weeks of school, Anne Arundel County Public Schools is implementing new rules regarding student and fan behavior. Starting Friday, anyone engaging in violent behavior will be banned from attending games for 90 days, Superintendent Mark Bedell wrote in a letter to parents Wednesday.

In an effort to add more transparency to its Citizen Participation Policy for public school board meetings, the Carroll County Board of Education opted not to vote Wednesday night on policy changes and instead asked staff to tweak certain sections of it. Ten people spoke against the policy changes Wednesday night and the school board received numerous emails from the public during the last month, stating opposition to changes that included limiting the number of speakers at each meeting to 15 and allowing the board president to decide who could speak at meetings when requests exceeded the maximum 15.

The Howard County Board of Education pushed back its work session and initial vote on the superintendent’s proposed capital budget for fiscal 2024 to Sept. 29 to allow more time to consider public feedback. The vote was scheduled to take place at the Sept. 22 school board meeting. A. public hearing and work session were also scheduled for that meeting date and Howard County Public School System board member Christina Delmont-Small argued that the agenda was too crowded.

The Baltimore Police Department’s proposed new district boundaries, which officials say are necessary to modernize and streamline police operations, would shift areas of the city that have had more of the most violent crimes into larger, more violent Eastern and Western districts, a Baltimore Banner analysis has found. Those shifts have not gone unnoticed, sparking pushback from community associations and some city council members. But larger, more violent districts could actually be beneficial for Baltimore if police equitably realign resources, experts say.

Thanks to an increase in revenue from Maryland’s state income taxes and the ongoing impact of federal stimulus aid, the state finished the 2022 fiscal year with a $2 billion revenue surplus. Of that total, $370 million will be transferred to a Fiscal Responsibility Fund used for public school, community college and higher education construction. It includes $60 million for pay increases for some state employees. The state’s Rainy Day Fund will automatically receive another $500 million of the total for emergencies, Democratic State Comptroller Peter Franchot said.

State transportation officials are asking for public input on seven proposed transit routes that would connect Towson to downtown Baltimore. The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration unveiled seven options for a new north-to-south transit line connecting Baltimore County to Baltimore City by light rail, bus or subway. The seven proposed “alternatives” were identified in a feasibility study completed in 2021.